![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP26028787455403-e1769899348372.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A 5-year-old boy and his father must be released by Tuesday from the Texas center where they\u2019ve been held after being detained by immigration officers in Minnesota, a federal judge ordered Saturday in a ruling that harshly criticized the Trump administration\u2019s approach to enforcement.<\/p>\n
Images of Liam Conejo Ramos, wearing a bunny hat and Spider-Man backpack, surrounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers sparked even more outcry about the administration\u2019s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
The boy and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were detained in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on Jan. 20. They were taken to a detention facility in Dilley, Texas.<\/p>\n
That led to a protest at the Texas family detention center and a visit by two Texas Democratic members of Congress.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery, who sits in San Antonio and was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that \u201cthe case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biery had previously ruled that the boy and his father could not be removed from the U.S., at least for now.<\/p>\n
In his order Saturday, Biery said: \u201capparent also is the government’s ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence,\u201d suggesting the Trump administration’s actions echo those that then-author and future President Thomas Jefferson enumerated as grievances against England’s King George.<\/p>\n
Among them: \u201cHe has sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People\u201d and \u201cHe has excited domestic Insurrection among us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biery included in his ruling a photo of Liam and references to two lines in the Bible: \u201cJesus said, \u2019Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these,\u201d and \u201cJesus wept.\u201d<\/p>\n
He’s not the only federal judge who has been tough on ICE recently. A Minnesota-based judge with a conservative pedigree described the agency as a serial violator of court orders related to the crackdown.<\/p>\n
Stephen Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy, has said there\u2019s a target of 3,000 immigration arrests a day. It\u2019s that figure which the judge seemed to refer to as a \u201cquota.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spokespersons from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately reply to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
The Law Firm of Jennifer Scarborough, which is representing the boy and his family, said in a statement that it was working \u201cto ensure a safe and timely reunion.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased that the family will now be able to focus on being together and finding some peace after this traumatic ordeal,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
Neighbors and school officials say that federal immigration officers in Minnesota used the preschooler as \u201cbait\u201d by telling him to knock on the door to his house so that his mother would answer. The Department of Homeland Security has called that description of events an \u201cabject lie.\u201d It said the father fled on foot and left the boy in a running vehicle in their driveway.<\/p>\n
The government says Arias entered the U.S. illegally in December 2024. The family’s lawyer says he has a pending asylum claim that allows him to remain in the country.<\/p>\n
During Wednesday’s visit by Texas Reps. Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett, the boy slept in the arms of his father, who said Liam was frequently tired and not eating well at the detention facility that houses about 1,100 people, according to Castro.<\/p>\n
Detained families report poor conditions like worms in food, fighting for clean water and poor medical care at the detention center since its reopening last year. In December, a report filed by ICE acknowledged they held about 400 children longer than the recommended limit of 20 days.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this article.<\/p>\n
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/p>\n
#Judge #orders #5yearold #boy #dad #released #ICE #detention #citing #incompetentlyimplemented #government #pursuit #daily #deportation #quotas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 5-year-old boy and his … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[11275,11276,4419,11277,265,7746,4756,1054,1617,11278,4418,2060,1845,11279,5034],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}